Destabilization plot crushed — GMA

A plot to destabilize the government in the wake of last month’s elections has fizzled out because of lack of support, President Arroyo announced yesterday.

She did not name any plotters, but military and police officials said earlier that forces allied with Mrs. Arroyo’s opponents had been trying to recruit soldiers, police officers and the urban poor to join anti-government rallies in a bid to derail a congressional count of the May 10 presidential vote.

Mrs. Arroyo’s camp has claimed she won by about one million votes over actor-turned-politician Fernando Poe Jr., and the protests were meant to block her impending victory.

Her administration has threatened to use force against those who resort to violence to derail the vote count.

"The threats of destabilization have been crushed by the very same people the plotters are trying to recruit and exploit," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement yesterday. "The urban poor, the soldiers and the police have refused to support their sinister plans."

The President said intelligence officials were continuing to monitor the anti-government plotters, who she said have become "a coffee shop cabal rather than a real challenge."

"They are well advised to keep within the law," she said.

Poe has also claimed victory and has accused Mrs. Arroyo’s camp of cheating in the elections. The Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino, of which Poe is the standard-bearer, has warned of another people power revolt if he is cheated of victory.

After days of wrangling over counting rules and the lengthy opening of more than 200 ballot boxes, Congress began an official count of the votes last Saturday with Mrs. Arroyo taking an early lead with a few hundred votes from overseas Filipino workers counted.

Under the Constitution, only Congress can proclaim the winning president and vice president.

An independent count of the votes by the election watchdog National Citizens Movement for Free Elections has already declared Mrs. Arroyo the winner.

Chief Superintendent Roberto Delfin, who heads the Philippine National Police intelligence section, told reporters yesterday that the PNP is still monitoring alleged plotters belonging to the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc., a group identified with opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan, and the Patriots, headed by activist Roman Catholic priest Fr. Joe Dizon.

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. earlier apologized to Honasan and Dizon for linking them to destabilization plots.

Delfin, however, maintained there was no such apology.

"I think there was no such apology because I was there. The statement of the PNP chief was to correct the misconception of the group. But still we have reports that there are really some members of the Patriots who were really involved in attending meetings related to their plans to stop the proclamation," he said.

"We have information on the Guardians, they are the ones involved in recruiting people to join the ‘no proclamation’ plot," he said.

Despite Honasan’s earlier denials, Delfin maintained that the former coup plotter, who made several unsuccessful attempts to topple then-President Corazon Aquino in the 1980s, was currently planning to destabilize the government.

Last week, Malacañang said law enforcement agencies have "concrete" evidence that unnamed figures were planning to mount a coup during the protracted vote-counting conducted by Congress.

The government was gathering a case against the plotters, although he urged the public not to be alarmed, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

In a related development, Army chief Lt. Gen. Efren Abu warned his men against being "the next victims of unscrupulous individuals whose only objective is to destroy the country."

"Don’t be the next victims," Abu told Army troops during a surprise visit to two camps in Western Mindanao yesterday.

"You are the target of unscrupulous individuals to rebel against the constituted authority due to your sense of idealism. Don’t be their next victims. You know who they are," he added.

Abu’s trip to Mindanao coincided with a series of reports about the reported recruitment of soldiers for a destabilization plot against the government. — with AP, Jaime Laude